Kobold Quarterly 23

Kobold Quarterly's fall 2012 issue is not for the faint of heart! Starting with the fearsome art featuring the Master of Demon Mountain on the cover, you will enter an issue packed full of devils and demons to give PCs pause. With a new playable lamia race lurking within, even players might be tempted to join the dark side. (Also the dark side has chocolate, as we learn in the adventure “Devil’s Food.”)

The dark aristocratic glory of Dispater, First King of the Infernal City, by Wes Schneider

The Vile Black Book, a grimoire written by Asmodeus himself, with five new diabolical spells, by Ed Greenwood

“The Urge to Evolve”, a new Pathfinder Society Quest by Adam Daigle

Mechuiti, Midgard’s demon lord of apes and cannibals, with new spells, monsters and adventure hooks

“Devil’s Food”, an adventure among Midgard’s diabolical gnomes

GM tips from Steve Winter on creating an atmosphere of horror at the table

KQ #23 also features inks and poisons from Midgard’s Seven Cities, worldbuilding with Monte Cook, a lamia PC race, plus devil-smiting, soul-selling, and much more vileness as black as a derro's soul.

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Once again, an issue filled with Epic Win

This issue of Kobold Quarterly has a distinct slant toward demons and devils, which is quite fitting for a Halloween issue. However, if fiends from the lower planes aren’t your thing, don’t despair – this issue also has over a dozen articles covering a wide variety of non-infernal topics. Let’s look at a few of them first.

What does your older brother plus a water balloon have in common with spreading dread amongst your players? More than you might think. The connection is explained, very eloquently and entertainingly, by Steve Winter in his Howling Tower article, “Real Scares, 11 Techniques for Creating a Strong Horror Atmosphere at the Table.” And no, absolutely none of the techniques involve hiring your older brother to ambush your players with water balloons.

James Thomas brings us “A Few Suggestions, 8 Ways to Influence Weak Minds.” With humor, concise examples, and even a Star Wars reference, Mr. Thomas shows that the humble suggestion spell is unfairly neglected by GM and players alike. And of course, he also shows how to easily remedy that neglect.

“Slithering in Moonlight” by Marc Radle is a guide to using Lamia Commoners as player characters. In addition, he also explores lamias in a way that recalls the excellent “Ecology Of…” articles from back in the print-edition days of Dragon Magazine. Whether as prospective PC’s or just as better-developed foes, this article improves the usefulness of lamias. Also, I thought the story fragment used to introduce this article was particularly effective.

“The Gauntlet Witch” by Morgan Boehringer and Jim Wettstein is an archetype that lets characters mix martial and magical arts. This is the most well-developed archetype description I’ve ever seen. Most archetypes are described in a couple of short paragraphs which say “swap this power for that power.” That’s not the case here. Brace yourself for a detailed, in-depth discussion.

This issue includes two adventures: The first adventure, “Devil’s Food” by Michael Lane, is suitable for a 6th level group. It involves autumn festivals, chocolate, and some wonderfully nasty gnomes. This adventure is set in the world of Midgard, but as with all good adventure modules, some careful name changes will let you securely place it in your own world.

The second adventure, “The Urge to Evolve” by Adam Daigle is a Pathfinder Society Quest. It is nicely compact, should be playable in the course of a single game session, and even includes a sidebar suggesting how to scale it for your group.

I do have one nit to pick with both these adventures. Both use the “I have a job for you” setup, which is one of my least-favorite ways to start an adventure. However, this complaint reflects my personal prejudice rather than any flaw in the adventures themselves, both of which looks like they will be properly entertaining.

Now let’s look at a sampling of the Fiendish Articles:

“Dispater” by Wes Schneider provides everything you need to bring this Arch-Fiend to life in your campaign. Giving major foes a real personality and complex, understandable motives can be quite a challenge … for me, anyway, but apparently not for Mr. Schneider. He shows exactly how to do it for this iconic arch-devil. He has even included a sidebar on the real-world history of Dispater.

Ed Greenwood gives us “Pages from Asmodeus”, a book unlike any I have ever heard of before. This evil object is more imaginative and intriguing than any of the Artifacts from back in 1st Edition days, yet it is suitable for use with a group of almost any level.

“Selling Your Soul” by Rodrigo García Carmona presents a detailed and excellent set of rules to guide both GM’s and players in striking a Fiendish Bargain. I am not familiar with the Age system for which this article was written, but that doesn’t matter. The information in this article is so clearly and logically presented that I know I’ll have no trouble at all adjusting it for use in my 3E/PF game.

Please be assured, I enjoyed all the articles in this issue, even the ones I didn’t choose to mention here. Every article had something interesting, useful, or entertaining to say.

Another Fantastic Issue!

Yet another excellent issue of Kobold Quarterly with their Autumn 2012 Demons and Devils issue. I really enjoyed Pages from Asmodeus by Ed Greenwood, one of the feature articles this month. Also an article on Selling your Soul to the devil for the AGE system, but plenty of useful parts for any system. The art work is once again top notch.